Solicitors' Apprentices' Debating Society Inaugural Meeting 1931by P.J.O'Brien, Auditor, "Arthur Griffith - the man and his policy"

Fenianisra, the bnlk of the Nation had abandoned the idea of Liberty. The people who divided into two groups., the one - the Unionists ~ sought to preserve the"same alliance.with England which had prevailed since l8oO, and the other, and by far the larger group - the followers of the Irish Party, who regarded Home Rule as the ideal for which to strive. Of the two Griffith looked on the Irish party with the greater disfavour. He regarded their presence in Westminster as an admission of England 7 s right to control Ireland's affairs. He decided that the only hope for Ireland's regeneration was to get the Irish people to adopt the same policy of passive resistance to English Government and abstention from the British Parliament, which the Hungarians had so successfully used against Austria. With the example of Deal-: in Hungary before him, he set himself a similar task to unite his countrymen, to fire them with some of his own national spirit, and with them as his allies to repeal the Union and to restore to Ireland her Parliament and place as a free and ancient Nation, In the Middle of the 19th Century, Hungary, by threat of arms, had wrung from an unwilling Austria recog– nition as a free and equal Nation. The Emperor of Austria was pro claimed King of Hungary and crowned with the Iron Crown of the good Zing Stephen, a Hungarian Diet was estab– lished and Hungary's Rights were embodied in the Constitution of 1848, never more to be questioned or gainsaid. But Austrian pride was deeply hurt and within a few years the Constitution was violated, the Diet abolished, and Hungary was ordered to send her representatives to the Austrian Parliament in Vienna, Then began a struggle which excited the admiration of the world. Francis Deak arose in Hungary determined to win back his country's rights. Adopting the policy of passive resistance he refused to treat with Austria until the Constitution of '48 was restored. "Hungary" he sais, "is a free and equal nation and will only negotiate as such. Her representatives will never plead her cause in a foreign Parliament". The Candidates, whom Austria nominated at the polls, were defeated on every side and the empty Hungarian benches in Vienna bore evidence to Beak's success. The Austrian Diplomats had yet another card to play - the Jtoperor graciously offered his Hungarian subjects Home Rule. Deak spurned the offer and Hungary applauded, Finally, in 1866, Prussia and Italy went to"war with Austria, and Austria, finding herself unable to bear the combat singlehanded, agreed to comply with all Hungary's demands - to restore her violated Constitution, to re-establish her Parliament, aEd to recognise her as a free and equal nation, at the price of Hungary^s assistance in the war. He rejected the Austrian offer, declining, PS he said, to make the liberty o-f his country a matter of barter. The war ended disastrously for Austria, degraded by Prussia, deprived of Venice by Italy, she adopted the only course that remained. The Constitution of T 48 was restored, the Parliament re-established, and Hungary stood before the world a free and equal member of the family of nations. Griffith, steeped in the annals of his country, saw the parallel in Irish history. He saw ho?/ the Irish Volunteers had won from England the Rerunciation Act of 1782 which had declared that the right of Ireland to be bound only by the laws of her own Parliament, should never more be questioned or questionable. He saw how the man who on behalf of England had acknowledged the sovereignity of Ireland's Parliament, had denied the work of his own hands, and by force and guila Incorporated the Irish Parliament in that of England, and here Griffith saw the parallel fail. The Irish members ~ 2 -

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